The invention relates to a surgical clip cartridge with a housing member and with a plurality of C-shaped surgical clips stored therein having two limbs connected to one another by a web, the housing member comprising a plurality of compartments each for receiving a surgical clip, with a support face adapted to the contour of the surgical clip in each compartment, against which support face a respective surgical clip abuts with its inner face, and with holding members arranged on the housing member, which can be pivoted from a holding position into a release position and, in the holding position, fix the surgical clip in its compartment and, in the release position, are removed from the surgical clip.
A surgical clip cartridge of this type is known, for example, from EP 0 494 243 B1. A plurality of surgical clips can be stored next to one another in a magazine of this type and can be removed by means of a removal tool. The surgical clips are stored in the compartments abutting on a support face and are fixed in this position by holding members pressed on to the outer sides of the limbs. However, this fixing takes place exclusively by means of a frictional connection, so that there is a risk of a surgical clip being unintentionally released from the support face and then adopting an undefined position in the compartment of the housing member. Therefore there is a risk of a surgical clip not being able to be correctly gripped by a removal tool and, in the worst case, a surgical clip could also fall out of the magazine.
A surgical clip cartridge is described in DE 101 05 235 A1, in which the surgical clips are held on the housing member by projections engaging in transverse grooves on the outer side of the surgical clips.
The object of the invention is to configure a surgical clip cartridge of the above-mentioned type in such a way that the surgical clips are particularly reliably fixed therein until they are removed.